Friday, August 20, 2010

The closing of the second day of Outside Lands 2010 brought us a whole lot of awesomeness. Not only did we get to see three killer bands, but the sun also made an appearance for the first time all weekend. Enjoying the weather, and the shows, here's a glimpse of our last day out in the park!--

Phoenix

It's no secret that we here at HAD are totally in love with the boys in Phoenix, so it wasn't exactly a shocker that they were one of the most fun, original bands we saw all weekend. We've seen the band live enough times to know we'd have fun, but frankly, we didn't realize just how giddy we'd be for another dose of French rock and roll.

Like a good omen, the sun came out just as they started to play, and stayed out for the rest of the day. The festival was packed, and Sunday was definitely more crowded than Saturday. While we can't say for sure, we have a feeling Phoenix had a lot to do with that. This was their last US show for a while and Thomas Mars was ready to bring it.

Keeping that in mind, he jumped into the crowd right off the bat. He said the band was there to have a good time: mission accomplished. The move got the crowd rolling, and it was a pretty sweet way to start the show.

As has been the case as of late, the set featured Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix heavily, and that's certainly never something to complain about. The band opened up with a killer version of "Lisztomania" and then closed out the set with the record's other big hit, "1901". The show was fantastic, and we'll just say this: our opinion has not changed.

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Social Distortion

As expected, the audience for Social Distortion was definitely a little older and there were a lot of guys all in black with dark glasses and lots of tattoos. We thought it seemed like a weird place for the band to play but they had a decent sized crowd that was super stoked on seeing them.

The stage was littered with lots of miscellaneous objects: a traffic light, toy truck, various signs saying things like "inmates stand here," "no drinking", Everlast boxing gloves, a crucifix, and an old license plate. We're not exactly sure what the aesthetic goal was, but there you have it.

In short, they sounded good. The crowd seemed happy they played "Bad Luck" and "Born to Lose". The lead singer said "It's great to be on the west god damn coast. Doesn't it seem like people on the east coast just don't get it?" We're not sure what to think of that, exactly, but it seems more likely it's the people in question, not where they're located.
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Kings of Leon

Make no mistake about it: Kings Of Leon are completely huge. They've come a long, long, way since we saw them at Axis in Boston on their first tour, and it seemed like everyone at the entire festival was there to see them.

Many screaming ladies, high school kids, and dudes chanting 'K.O.L.!' filled the field for them. In short, they have become a band that it so ubiquitous that their crowd becomes like some sort of amalgam of mainstream society. In return, the band busted out some stage antics, including plumes of magenta smoke.

As always, they definitely delivered with a solid set (complete with screaming into the guitar pickups, above) and a great show. Kings Of Leon are one of those bands who, whatever your opinions might be about them musically, it's impossible to deny that they've put in the time to become a completely killer live act. It was fitting, then, that they were chosen to close out an unparalleled weekend of rock and roll.
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